Impact of Support Services to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) under
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in Digos City
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The Philippines is primarily an agricultural country, with about 5 million farmers
cultivating 30 percent of the country's total geographical area. However, due to land conversion,
the amount of farmland dedicated to agriculture has been diminishing. The fundamental issue is
that Filipino farmers lack the financial means to own their own property. The Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform program was established to solve the issue of landlessness through land
redistribution. Another issue is that the number of individuals working in agriculture is
diminishing. Farming as a profession has lost its appeal among the young and educated. Farmers
are on average 57 years old, with a primary school education. Because of the complexity and
alleged low revenue involved with agriculture, the majority of Filipinos do not want to engage in
it. Agriculture knowledge gained via education can make farming more appealing to young
people and inspire them to pursue it. People will no longer associate farming with poverty as a
result of increased farm output and, as a result, higher income. This should be backed up by
policies and initiatives targeted at enhancing farm productivity and facilitating farm land
distribution. (Elauria,2015) The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), which was
enacted through Republic Act No.6657 on June 10, 1988, during President Corazon C. Aquino's
administration, became the legal basis for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
(CARP), which aims to acquire and redistribute all public and private agricultural lands,
including the other lands of public domain suitable for agricultural, regardless of tenurial
arrangement or commodity produced to farmers and regular farmworkers. Its main concern is to
achieve more equitable distribution of ownership of the land of the tiller or farm-cultivator and
the provision of the necessary support services to improve the quality of life of the farmer-
beneficiaries. (Dela Cerna,2014)
The Department of Agrarian Reform of the Philippines is the lead government agency in
charge of holding and implementing comprehensive and genuine agrarian reform that achieves
equitable land distribution, ownership, agricultural productivity, and tenurial security for, of, and
with the land's tillers in order to improve their quality of life. Through Land Tenure
Improvement (LTI), Agrarian Justice, and Coordinated Delivery of Essential Support Services to
Client Beneficiaries, it leads the execution of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
(CARP). (IPA,2018)
According to World Bank (2020). Inequitable land tenure has a long history in the
Philippines. Large private estates dominated the rural terrain beginning with the Spanish colonial
period (1565-1898). Farmers worked the land under share-cropping agreements, with no control
over the crops they raised or the ability to own the land they worked. By 1980, 60 percent of the
agricultural population, many of whom were poor, were landless. The Congress established the
agrarian reform law in 1988 and launched the CARP to help small farmers by providing them
with land tenure security and other services. CARP has allocated 4.8 million hectares – 16
percent of the country's land – to nearly three million recipients over the last three decades.
However, individual titles accounted for only about 53% of the total lands awarded. The
government granted largely communal land ownership awards to speed up land distribution,
especially in the 1990s, with the purpose of subdividing and titling them individually thereafter.
This study will identify whether the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform program benefits
the farmers, strengthens the agricultural sector, and adequately distributes the lands throughout
the beneficiaries. What are the troubles they face distributing the land? How DAR still offers
support services even the country faces the COVID-19 pandemic. We will also know how they
handle the services within Digos City.
Statement of the Problem
In this study, we will know the struggles of the Comprehensive Reform Program and how
complicated distributing the services to the beneficiaries is. Furthermore, it seeks to answer the
following question:
1. The Philippines is one of the few countries where agrarian reform is still regarded as a
significant ongoing government program. Would it be true that distributing hectares of the said
(land/benefits such as health insurance, government loans, etc.) reaches the farmers/poor people?
2. Does the Department of Agrarian Reform have the capacity to equally distribute the land area
to its beneficiaries?
3. Even if the country is facing a pandemic, how do they handle the situation?
C. Theoretical Framework
Public Choice Theory
The application of economics to the study of political processes and institutions is commonly
understood as public choice theory. Public choice theory is founded on two principles: (a)
methodological individualism and (b) rational choice. It is ideologically based on the New Right
philosophy. The New Right is a group of thinkers who advocate for a variety of ideologies,
including free market, anti-welfarist, libertarian, and sometimes socially authoritarian
(conservative) policies (Jary and Jary 2000). The public choice theory seeks to eliminate public
bureaucracies, which have an uncanny tendency to oversupply and overspend.
Oversupply
Public bureaucracy, according to public choice theorists, has an inherent tendency to oversupply.
The tendency to oversupply has been exacerbated further by bureaucracy as a self-aggrandizing
institution, as well as several interest groups.
Budget Maximization
Budget maximization is a fairly open-ended process with its own augmentation logic.
Bureaucracies, in collaboration with political executives, frequently 'manufacture' work in order
to justify the 'increase' in plan outlay. It is a popular public administration analysis model based
on public choice theory and rational choice theory that demonstrates how bureaucrats maximize
their personal utility through budgeting.
It argued that 'rational bureaucrats will always and everywhere seek to increase their budgets in
order to increase their own power, thereby strongly contributing to state growth and potentially
reducing social efficiency' (Niskanen 1971, 1973)
Contracting out/leasing out: According to New Right thinkers, contracting out is the most
efficient way to restore efficiency and economy in government bodies because it removes the
extraneous flab from the governmental structure.
Performance-based pay: The public choice theory has also proposed a precise appraisal system
for determining the pay structure for its employees.
Hiring consultants: Hiring consultants is another important suggestion advanced by public
choice theory. According to public choice theorists, the appointment of consultants will
effectively challenge the state bureaucracy, particularly its monopoly over information and
advice.
Cut on Spending: Finally, the public choice theory has advocated for significant cuts in public
spending to counteract the tendency of oversupply and over staffing in public bureaucracies.
Title: Impact of Support Services to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) under
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in Digos City.
The Agrarian Reform refers to the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced,
to landless farmers and regular farm-workers, regardless of tenurial arrangement, to include the
totality of factors and support services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiaries, as
well as all other arrangements alternative to the physical redistribution of lands, such as production
or profit-sharing, labor administration, and the distribution of shares of stocks, which will ensure
that beneficiaries receive a fair share of the fruits of the lands on which they work.
The same principles that economists use to analyze people's actions in the marketplace are applied
to people's actions in collective decision making by public choice. Public choice economists share
the same assumption: that while people in the political marketplace care about others, their primary
motivation is self-interest, whether they are voters, politicians, lobbyists, or bureaucrats.
Economists who study private market behavior assume that people are primarily motivated by self-
interest which can either be good or bad.
This study helps us identify whether the CARP would actually have the “Budget” to benefit its
said Farm-workers during this pandemic. The theory’s concepts is simply to seek if the said
Government operated program has the Budget to spend on its workers or beneficiaries.
D. Methods and Materials
The narrative analysis method was used for this paper, in which the researcher focuses on a topic
and analyzes data collected through case studies, surveys, observations, or other similar methods.
The researchers write down their findings, which they then review and analyze. Those willing to
participate in our study will be given a survey questionnaire in order for us to collect as much data
as possible.
This means that the program (CARP) will collect extensive data, particularly on the effects of the
respondents during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The information gathered will assist us researchers
in examining the shortcomings/advantages of the government-provided program.
References:
Elauria , Marilyn. “Farm Land Policy and Financing Program for Young Generation in the
Philippines.” FFTC Agricultural Policy Platform (FFTC-AP), July 16, 2020.
Dela Cerna, Evangeline. Agribusiness Venture Arrangements in Agrarian Reform Area in
Calinan, Davao City: A Rural Development Experience . Davao , 2014.
“Philippines Department of Agrarian Reform.” Innovations for Poverty Action, June 29, 2020.
https://www.poverty-action.org/organization/philippines-department-agrarian-reform.
“Agrarian Reform History.” Department of Agrarian Reform RSS. Accessed February 3, 2022.
https://www.dar.gov.ph/about-us/agrarian-reform-history/.
World Bank Group. “Philippines: New Project to Help Provide Individual Land Titles to 750,000
Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries.” World Bank. World Bank Group, June 26, 2020.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/06/26/philippines-new-project-to-
help-provide-individual-land-titles-to-750000-agrarian-reform-beneficiaries.
Chakrabarty, B., Kandpal, P. C., & Roy, A. (2020). Public administration in a globalizing world:
Theories and practices. SAGE Publishing.
